4A |
SATURDAY EDITION
| JULY 25, 2020
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
NED HICKSON , EDITOR
| 541-902-3520 | NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
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ment for a redress of grievances.
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Letters to the Editor policy
LETTERS
Avoid classless conduct
that reflects on our city
The July 22 edition of the Siuslaw
News covered in depth the July 20
Florence City Council meeting.
Near the end of the article, it states
that “Some confusion over what
sounded to be profanity from an
unmuted microphone during the
latter stages of the proclamation
discussions…”
I watched the live streaming of
this city council meeting and there
was no “confusion” as to what I and
others heard from the “unmuted
microphone.”
After the council voted down by
a 3-2 vote a proposed proclamation
on climate change, a woman’s voice
in the background could clearly be
heard to say “F--- Y--.”
Councilor Ron Preisler could
then be seen and heard to say “Sor-
ry ‘bout that” which leads one to
believe that the audible “F-bomb”
was dropped by someone in his
household. Some members of the
council also speculated that the
“woman’s voice” was that of Coun-
cilor Preisler’s wife, who made
her presence known earlier in the
meeting.
The teleconference broadcast
of this meeting, that is viewable
throughout the world, requires
those who are in control of the
cameras and microphones to be
extremely vigilant as to who has ac-
cess to them during the broadcast.
The vulgarity in evidence at the
end of this meeting is despicable
and reflects disfavorably on our
city council and our city.
There is no room in our city for
this kind of rude and disrespectful
outburst and Councilor Preisler
should better monitor the conduct
of his home audience to avoid this
classless kind of conduct.
—Ron Duzy
Florence
Our ‘City in Motion’
gets in the weeds
I really liked hearing Mike Mill-
er, director of Public Works, ar-
ticulate how the new fl oodwater
management system is designed to
prevent a salmon from swimming
up the wrong pipe… and he also
talked about how people who did
the original development where
this new system is going in didn’t
really understand what is under-
stood now about stormwater and
groundwater systems.
He was able to explain why
things that were done in 1996 may
not make sense for today’s develop-
ment projects.
He did what Anthony Fauci, the
Director of the National Institutes
of Health, was talking about when
he noted in a Facebook interview
with Mark Zuckerberg that it takes
fl exibility and humility to incorpo-
rate new data into the research pro-
cess in order to modify protocols
or predictions to the current situ-
ation — which has oft en changed
dramatically since the original pro-
tocols were set or predictions were
made.
And I was equally chagrined
when the Florence City Council
decided not to declare a climate
emergency, and essentially shut the
whole topic down — at least for
now. My appreciation to Councilor
Ron Preisler raising the issue and
to Councilor Joshua Greene for his
support in the matter.
In its rigidity, the council has
shown itself to be incapable of in-
corporating new information as
times change. It displayed no hu-
mility or fl exibility, no willingness
to discuss the matter with the pub-
lic, petition signers or even among
its own members.
Th ere was some posturing on
procedural guidelines, but no mea-
sures were suggested for how to
amend the statement or the way
in which it was presented, so that
it could become part of our future
(e.g. present it properly or in prop-
er format).
Councilor Woodbury noted that
this is not the time to change how
the council does things.
In response, I say it may be the
time to help the public gain skills
in how to work eff ectively with the
council, especially since the public
may not be quite as savvy on how
to ask for what it wants given the
inherent rigidity of “document
speak” and “legalese.”
Can the leadership of this town
please get an eye for those they
serve, and recognize the philo-
sophical diversity among us?
—Ivy Medow
Florence
Pay now or pay, pay,
pay later
“You can pay me now or you can
pay me later” is the punchline of
the familiar commercial attempt-
ing to convince you to spend a cou-
ple of bucks now on a new oil fi lter
for your car or, through your own
negligence, bring it back later to the
mechanic for a more expensive en-
gine overhaul.
Harken back to late winter
which, back then was the “now.”
Fast-forward to today which is the
“later.” In late winter, other coun-
tries were seeing skyrocketing cases
of COVID-19 and struggling with
how to deal with the pandemic. At
that time, COVID-19 was almost
nonexistent in the U.S.
Other countries went into dra-
conian shutdown procedures and,
though there are still outbreaks,
they are largely controlled by the
measures instituted including
widespread quarantining, testing
and tracing.
Before much was understood
about important aspects of virus
transmission, our medical experts
downplayed the wearing of masks
by the general population, citing
the scarcity of masks which were
required by fi rst line medical work-
ers.
It didn’t take long to do a 180
degree turn when more was un-
derstood about virus transmission
and masks were recommended for
everyone.
Out and out hostility to masks
was oft en justifi ed on the initial
medical recommendation but did
not diminish aft er the newer rec-
ommendation that masks were the
most important weapon in fi ghting
COVID-19.
Th is rebellion took on a life of its
own.
Th e medical community recent-
ly has made a startling suggestion
that if everyone in the country were
to wear masks and follow social
distancing guidelines, COVID-19
would be showing a rapid decrease
in cases within three weeks and our
rate of infections would start ap-
proaching those of other countries
where businesses and schools are
now opening.
So picture the following scenar-
io: Our President goes on national
TV and says something like “Th e
medical guys think that COVID-19
would be on the run just by every-
one wearing a mask and following
social distancing guidelines. And
this in just 3 weeks. So I am order-
ing everyone in the country to do
this and I mean everybody. No ex-
ceptions.”
If our pandemic doesn’t come
under control then, the medical
profession will have a lot of ex-
plaining to do. If it does get under
control, we can start seriously plan-
ning on re-opening up our busi-
nesses, our restaurants, our bars
and our schools.
Of course, I doubt this would
ever happen since it would amount
to having our President admit that
the medical community has been
right through the spring and sum-
mer.
So maybe the commercial should
say: “You can pay me now or pay
and pay and pay and pay…”
—Kenneth Janowski
Florence
I agree with Keith Kraft
I am 100 percent in agreement
with the letter written by Keith
Kraft (“What ‘Far-Right’ Means To
Me.”) in the Siuslaw News on July
22nd.
We’re certainly on the same page!
—Trish Rhodes
Florence
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WHERE TO WRITE
Pres. Donald Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD Comments:
202-456-6213
www.whitehouse.gov
Oregon Gov.
Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, Ore. 97301-4047
Governor’s Citizens’ Rep.
Message Line:
503-378-4582
www.oregon.gov/gov
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate
Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
541-431-0229
www.wyden.senate.gov
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
FAX: 202-228-3997
541-465-6750
www.merkley.senate.gov
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio
(4th Dist.)
2134 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6416
541-269-2609
541-465-6732
www.defazio.house.gov
State Sen. Arnie Roblan
(Dist. 5)
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
FAX: 503-986-1080
Email: Sen.ArnieRoblan@
oregonlegislature.gov
State Rep.
Caddy McKeown
(Dist. 9)
900 Court St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1409
Email: rep.caddymckeown
@oregonlegislature.gov
West Lane County
Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
FAX: 541-682-4616
Email: Jay.Bozievich@
co.lane.or.us